Mass Effect: Andromeda

[Q-BZ]

Mass Effect: Andromeda

^^ Valid criticisms. (Dan's post at the bottom of previous page)


I am encouraged by some of the comments quoted earlier that they are going to attempt to refine aspects of the UI, menus, and crafting because some of that was/is as you basically said: If it wasn't broke, why fix it. I hope they can do it.

I've gotten along ok with it but it definitely could stand to be less cumbersome in areas and more streamlined and intuitive. (No, I don't meaned 'dumbed down for the kiddies' )

Some of it looks and feels like it was a solution looking for a problem.

 

[zamardii12]

I find it hard to believe someone would play the ME franchise for thousands of hours and not be compelled to finish Andromeda.

That is very confusing to me how you can love the first three games and not feel compelled to play Andromeda. I am totally sucked into the game world right now. I would say that the first 10 hours felt laborious a little, but after things pick up really well and between driving the Nomad and doing the loyalty missions and the occasional task it's great fun. Also, the game is a screenshot person's wet dream especially if you are able to use Nvidia Ansel which i've been using quite a lot. I have so many wallpapers idk which one to use. Lol.

Andromeda to me is a fantastic return to form for the Mass Effect Universe. It is a PROPER Mass Effect title and not a cheap spin-off. It takes what's best about the first three games and melds them together into a beautiful open world adventure. They also massively improved the combat. I love my crew-mates and I love the way that the game makes it feel like they are alive and doing things even when you are not around whether they're writing you emails, talking to each other whether on the Tempest or driving around in the Nomad, posting on the crew message board on the ship, and the fact that they are almost never in the same place twice is cool and makes me look for them to see what they're up to. I feel a lot closer connection to this crew than I thought I would. They all have compelling stories and Andromeda doesn't just introduce you to Jaal for instance just to introduce a race; you get to know the race through his own experiences and his own perspective.

Also the sense of adventure in the game and the the thoughts that go with the feeling of you as a human being being the alien for the first time and being treated like an outsider and foreign. It really made me feel like I wanted to be a good ambassador of the human species. I really like the role of Ryder and can't wait to see what else they do with the series.

The only thing that I still don't quite understand even 40+ hours into Andromeda is what was the motivation for the Initiative? Like, back in the original trilogy humankind was seen as a fairly new space-faring species who have to earn their seat on the council and the respect of the other citadel races. Obviously there must be plenty of worlds to inhabit in the Milky Way as well as discover as you did in the original trilogy exploring the galaxy. So why the Initiative? The only narrative/motivation was "to have a new/fresh start." But why was that an imperative when the humans were so new to space travel after the events of Mass Effect that they felt the need to travel all the way to Andromeda? That's the only thing I don't quite understand. I know it was the brainchild of that one super rich woman; so perhaps she had a strong desire to make a name for herself but was hoping someone could elaborate.

 

[Q-BZ]

^^ I'm with you, man. Lumps and all, I'm right there with you. Careful with the spoilers, folks.

 

[Mad Maxx]

The only thing that I still don't quite understand even 40+ hours into Andromeda is what was the motivation for the Initiative? Like, back in the original trilogy humankind was seen as a fairly new space-faring species who have to earn their seat on the council and the respect of the other citadel races. Obviously there must be plenty of worlds to inhabit in the Milky Way as well as discover as you did in the original trilogy exploring the galaxy. So why the Initiative? The only narrative/motivation was "to have a new/fresh start." But why was that an imperative when the humans were so new to space travel after the events of Mass Effect that they felt the need to travel all the way to Andromeda? That's the only thing I don't quite understand. I know it was the brainchild of that one super rich woman; so perhaps she had a strong desire to make a name for herself but was hoping someone could elaborate.

Some YouTube videos speculate that Cerberus is behind The Initiative. These may contain spoilers, so watch at your own risk.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mass+effect+andromeda+cerberus+theory

I used to believe that the Andromeda mission was a fail-safe in case the Reapers were victorious, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[Damar]

People make far too many blanket statements about who should like what or that if "A" exists then "B" has to as well.

Someone could love ME1-3 and hate this game quite easily. Just because one person felt like they got their $60 worth out of ME:A doesn't mean everyone feels the same.

Plenty of people are beating on the game for stupid reasons (for sites its mostly to get page hits and ad revenue), and some also have genuine concerns about things that to them just don't feel or seem right about the game. Like anything, there are extremes.

I haven't been able to put as much time into the game as I'd hoped, but I'm trying to keep an open mind about things despite the constant back and forth of "its good", "it sucks".

All I know for certain right now, is its a new beginning, and where it will take us in the ME universe, we likely cant even imagine.

Just my opinion of course.

 

[Dan_D]

Mass Effect: Andromeda

^^ Valid criticisms. (Dan's post at the bottom of previous page)


I am encouraged by some of the comments quoted earlier that they are going to attempt to refine aspects of the UI, menus, and crafting because some of that was/is as you basically said: If it wasn't broke, why fix it. I hope they can do it.

I've gotten along ok with it but it definitely could stand to be less cumbersome in areas and more streamlined and intuitive. (No, I don't meaned 'dumbed down for the kiddies' )

Some of it looks and feels like it was a solution looking for a problem.

That's BioWare for you. They'll nail something and get it almost perfect only to redesign it into some bullshit that doesn't make sense. They tend to get things 90% right and then fuck it up hardcore in some way. Usually, they get enough right that people love their games despite the issues. Anyone who's ever played SWTOR will understand my example: It's like when BioWare releases a new armor set and it looks awesome......except for the butt flap, pointy shoulders, or antenna sticking off of it. Like I said, 90% good and then BAM. They put some goofy shit on it that fucks the whole thing up. Andromeda isn't that bad, but you get the point.

As for Andromeda as a whole, it's a more robust and feature rich open world RPG than anything BioWare has put out so far. There are some pros and cons to that, but they got more right than they got wrong. The menus are bad, but its not a deal breaker anymore than it was in Mass Effect 1. The only thing ME1 had over ME:A is that it's menus were more responsive. They were worse, but didn't run as slowly. They menus always lag when bringing them up. Once I'm in they are fine but they aren't what I'd call responsive.

The load out menu for choosing your armor has no ability to preview said armor and rotate it around. To do that you'd have to go back to the tempest and into Ryder's quarters. It's not a huge deal as you can switch gear at any forward base which can also be fast traveled to. Earlier Mass Effect games didn't let you change armor at the start of the mission like this one does so that's an improvement. Transitions into menus from the loadout selection menu are relatively slow. I don't see why this would be slower than the inventory menus or R&D menus which are pretty much the same thing.

The menus are somewhat unfortunate because the crafting system is actually pretty good. Crafting may very well have more depth or be more robust in other single player games. I don't know. I think this one strikes the right balance between complexity and ease of use. While you can find something like a level V version of your favorite weapon in the wild or even from some vendors, the crafted ones can potentially be better. You have to invest substantial resources into the crafting system to get something really worth while out of it but there is a payoff if you make good decisions about what your crafting and what you do to it. Case in point, I've had a M-76 Revenant fetish ever since ME2. The gun was nerfed going into ME3 and it became useless at anything beyond medium range and only moderately effective there without the marksman power. The gun still had its uses but was eventually supplanted by the N7 Typhoon and the M7 Lancer. Those guns were far more accurate and did more damage than the Revenant. In Andromeda, the weapon is back to what it should have been for the most part. The power levels are spot on. To get it under control you'll need some mods. By default it has two mod slots. Through crafting, you can add two more for a total of four. In this way crafted items are the best version of a given item. What's cool is that you can name the crafted version anything you like. Between augments that give the weapon unique characteristics and the mods you can obtain, there are a lot of possibilities.

In thinking back on it there are a couple other things missing:

We should have the ability to "restart mission" the way we did in ME2 and 3. You can do that here but it doesn't let you select squad mates or your loadout before dropping you on mission. You had to sit through the cut scenes again but ME2 and ME3 gave you a real mission restart. ME:A throws you into the mission immediately with nothing done. It's redundant as there is also an auto save that accompanies the mission start. The two saves will have an identical time stamp.

So far we are also missing any headgear that's not a full space suit helmet. In earlier games it would simply replace those with a helmet in scenes where a helmet would have been required to survive. That's a change I don't like.

 

[Lunas]

You aren't missing much.

I will say the following.
1.The outfit choices are slim would have liked GTA/saints row type outfit variety.
2. The tempest - missing huge opportunity possibly fixed with dlc you are given the resource hunting requirement of me2 with the mechanics of me1 having to instead hunt much of the mining deposits with the broken mako instead of probes from orbit. Also your ship has no weapons the nomad has no weapons but it has shields and HP...

Overall I feel they are repeating much of the old story except this time the reapers are biological... I guess we are being treated to the issue of how much the unwashed masses were allowed to know but the strangest thing is they have the plans for the sr2 Normandy not the sr1 the 2nd one made by Cerberus. Why not model the tempest more after the Normandy and give it with refits and upgrades more capability. I don't see this branching into a trilogy or even getting a sequel this seems like it will dead end here and I don't like the scope it chose to limit itself to.

Honestly they did not need to limit to just 1 star cluster have more arcs each one becomes a large mass relay to seed Andromeda with mass relays and have the Nexus have been a citadel class mass relay able to traverse from milky way to Andromeda it just had to take the slower route so the end point could be established. Or have entirely new drive tech not dependant on mass relays. It was hinted at in me1-3 as something that should be done geth had been working on it.

 

[M76]

Having put in about 10-15 hours in to ME:A, the story feels too much like a rehash of the ME1 story to a point of where I think they just changed some nouns and verbs, and called writing done. The derpy faces and bugs have already been mentioned to death. I'm not really feeling this game, and I don't really know if I will finish it.

Are you equating the scourge to the reapers here? Because if that's the case that's a very wild stretch. I'm also about 14 hours into the game and so far I learned nothing about the scourge or the motivations of the kett, or the remnant for that matter. I wouldn't even begin to compare the two. In fact the only thing they have in common is that in both you have a ship and can land on planets and do missions. But the rest? Not a clue what you're referring to. Unless you rushed and you're much further along the main story than I am in 14 hours.

Some thoughts about the experience so far:
Animations aside, In a lot of technical areas Andromeda is the best Mass Effect game to date. This game almost feels like it was actually properly developed for the PC. The game runs good and has a lot of options menu items that PC users expect that we've rarely had in console ports.

The options could've been there in previous games as well, it's not a technical issue it's an executive decision. It would've literally took as much time to have a ton more options for graphics in previous games is to make the menu options for them, UE has all that shit handled. That's why you have to tweak ini files in ME1.
So it's a welcome change but I'm not going to bend over backwards for them based on that.

My biggest problem with the game is that it radically redesigns elements of the trilogy that worked well. Armor customization and the journal come to mind. I hate how you can't change your armor load out in the color customization menu.

I actually like that you can change armor on the loadout screen, which you can access at any forward station. Going back to the captain's cabin to equip a new armor part was a pain.

The rest of the menus are fucking trash. The quest log / journal is a cluster fuck. I erroneously thought that it wouldn't display your current active quest in the upper right hand corner of the screen. That wasn't true. You can hit "Q" to show it.

It's not great but it's no worse than say skyrim's journal, what makes it seem worse is that there are a dozen more quests to track at a time organized into this and that sub group. There is the option in the menu to always show the active quest in the corner.

BioWare still can't fucking put the helmet toggle options in a menu that's easily accessed.

It would be great to have a simple key to put on or take off the helmet. So I could take it off when just exploring and put it on in hazardous places / during combat for immersion. There is an option for "off during conversations" but it only take off the helmet during cutscenes, but not for all the rest of the dialogue.

The crafting and research menus aren't too bad amazingly enough but I'm sure they could be done better.

Actually that is the one menu I found the worst in the game, the rest are fine.

The vendor menus for buying and selling items suck ass. I don't like the way its displayed or the way you sort things. Even when items are "sorted" they are only sorted by type. There is no way to sort by quality, level, rarity or anything else.

I could've sworn the items are sorted by default from highest level to lowest. And you can add sort by item type on top, and the vendors I've seen never had so many items that I'd feel the need for additional sorting. I think the vendor menu is fine as it is. They should fix the bugs, the animations, and improve the character generator. That's my wishlist. I don't even want transitions skippable they haven't annoyed me yet.

 

[M76]

But why was that an imperative when the humans were so new to space travel after the events of Mass Effect that they felt the need to travel all the way to Andromeda? That's the only thing I don't quite understand. I know it was the brainchild of that one super rich woman; so perhaps she had a strong desire to make a name for herself but was hoping someone could elaborate.

But it wasn't a human only undertaking. If there is an opportunity why not do it? That's like asking Elon Musk: "What the fuck do you want with space travel, there is plenty to do on earth still!"

 

[Dan_D]

Some YouTube videos speculate that Cerberus is behind The Initiative. These may contain spoilers, so watch at your own risk.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mass+effect+andromeda+cerberus+theory

I used to believe that the Andromeda mission was a fail-safe in case the Reapers were victorious, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I'll start off by saying I have not completed the story. I really don't know where the story is going on that front although I've got my own emerging theories on the subject. I'm just now getting into the stuff about the founder of the Andromeda Initiative (Jein Garson) in the game. I'll leave it at that. After the Andromeda Initiative videos went live and watching them I had figured that the council actually did take Shepard seriously and built the arks to send their people to the Andromeda Galaxy as a back up plan against Reaper invasion. It seemed like a project only a government agency like the Citadel Council could afford. Still, I had to wonder if this was done by private folks who saw Sovereign and connected the ship with the mythology about the Reapers in game. While the council suppressed this information as much as possible, you know the tinfoil hat crowd would still exist in 2185.

Spoiler: Jein Garson

The founder of the Andromeda Initiative is stated to be an enigmatic rich girl with nearly unlimited funding and a vision for the future in another Galaxy. She's sort of the Tony Stark, Elon Musk, or Steve Jobs of the Mass Effect universe. At least where humanity is concerned. The reality is that she ran out of funding for the project and it was doomed to fail. Not only did the costs get out of control but recruitment wasn't going well. All of the sudden a mysterious benefactor steps in with the necessary funding to save the project.

I'm starting to think this was actually Cerberus and the Illusive Man. The arks supposedly launched early in the ME2 days. Therefore its possible that Cerberus was behind the project. What's also interesting is that the human ark Hyperion is the only ark to arrive at the Nexus. All the others were lost or destroyed. Each seems to have had some survivors at least but they may not have a satisfactory base for their population. Well, all except the Asari who could conceivably return from a single individual. I don't know if I'm on the right track or not. We'll see. I'm avoiding reading anything online about the game's story so I can experience it for myself.

I wonder if the Illusive Man launched all four arks with the other three to save face publicly as the Initiative wasn't a secret project. It was a civilian project and apparently very public. He may have had operatives ensure the other arks never made it to their destinations. That may or may not pan out since the Asari Ark was attacked by the Kett. Then again, it could have been sending out signals they were unaware of to potentially draw any possible hostiles in.

This also leads me further down the rabbit hole as it opens the door for the Reapers should the Illusive Man be involved. He was clearly indoctrinated at the end. Lets not forget how many other people in Cerberus were indoctrinated or augmented by Reaper technology. The Reapers could easily cross dark space if they wanted to. I suspect so anyway. A Reaper, or Reapers coming to Andromeda could be away from the Star Brat's signal and could act autonomously, and without influence returning the Reapers to prominence in Mass Effect as an intelligent bad guy. Again, this is me going down the mental rabbit hole of possibilities.

M76 and I went back and four on this subject in earlier posts where he pointed out that the game was leading us away from any thought that the Initiative had anything to do with fleeing from the Reapers to preserve the Milky Way's main races. After ME3's ending I had a thought that Cerberus might send a human ark to another galaxy to ensure humanity's survival. I figured that a Cerberus funded human ark was one way to continue the series after ME3's disastrous ending. I put that idea to rest when I learned on the website that the Turians, Salarians, Asari and Humans all had arks too.

In any case, I've never believed for one second that the mission to Andromeda wasn't precipitated in some part as a reaction or failsafe against further Reaper aggression. I don't know if my theory will pan out yet as again, I've got a lot more of the story to do before I find out or figure out where this is leading. Evidently the ending doesn't answer every possible question or shed light on everything that happens in this game. I suspect this was intentional in order to have threads to carry into sequels.

 

[Dan_D]

Are you equating the scourge to the reapers here? Because if that's the case that's a very wild stretch. I'm also about 14 hours into the game and so far I learned nothing about the scourge or the motivations of the kett, or the remnant for that matter. I wouldn't even begin to compare the two. In fact the only thing they have in common is that in both you have a ship and can land on planets and do missions. But the rest? Not a clue what you're referring to. Unless you rushed and you're much further along the main story than I am in 14 hours.

I'm at 45% game completion and so far the Scourge hasn't been represented as anything other than an unknown or possibly natural phenomena. No connection to the Kett has been established. The Scourge actually arrived before the Kett by a few decades. The Kett's ultimate motivations are still unknown to me at this point. I do at least have some understanding of the Kett biology and their society now. What drives them to be so hostile is only partially understood at this point. I can't say more without getting into spoilers. The Remnant thus far are nothing but a Prothean type race that spanned the galaxy. It seems as though their "vaults" and monoliths are their legacy the same as the Mass Relays were from the Leviathans. I do have a growing suspicion about the nature or history of the Remnant, but its too early to say.

The options could've been there in previous games as well, it's not a technical issue it's an executive decision. It would've literally took as much time to have a ton more options for graphics in previous games is to make the menu options for them, UE has all that shit handled. That's why you have to tweak ini files in ME1.
So it's a welcome change but I'm not going to bend over backwards for them based on that.

I am well aware of that. What I am saying is that the game's performance, visual quality and options make it feel like a PC game and not some shitty port. I wouldn't mind being able to create a couple of preset color options for my armors and choosing those when I go on mission. Don't get me wrong, I'm not into RP walking or any bullshit like that but when in different environments, I like armor that is tailored for wherever the mission takes place. I'll change to desert tan for the desert, white for artic climates etc. It isn't something I'd bother with using the current (or old) systems for one or two missions. It is something I'd like to do when running around Eos or Voeld for 10+ hours each.

I actually like that you can change armor on the loadout screen, which you can access at any forward station. Going back to the captain's cabin to equip a new armor part was a pain.

I like that you can change armor in this way or equip it when you pick it up. What I don't like is that I can't change my armor and customize the colors in the same place as I could with the last two games.

It's not great but it's no worse than say skyrim's journal, what makes it seem worse is that there are a dozen more quests to track at a time organized into this and that sub group. There is the option in the menu to always show the active quest in the corner.

I'll take your word for it. A journal system being just as bad as the one in another popular game doesn't really excuse it. What we had in the previous games worked better. It would be better if "additional tasks" side quests) were listed as such by planet.

It would be great to have a simple key to put on or take off the helmet. So I could take it off when just exploring and put it on in hazardous places / during combat for immersion. There is an option for "off during conversations" but it only take off the helmet during cutscenes, but not for all the rest of the dialogue.

That's actually my point. BioWare could have done this better. Its been a problem with ME2 and ME3 having taken a step back from ME1 in that area.

Actually that is the one menu I found the worst in the game, the rest are fine.

We'll have to disagree then. It seems perfectly serviceable to me. That's not to say it couldn't be better but I've got less problems with that menu than most others. Skills are fine, profiles are a fucking mess.

I could've sworn the items are sorted by default from highest level to lowest. And you can add sort by item type on top, and the vendors I've seen never had so many items that I'd feel the need for additional sorting. I think the vendor menu is fine as it is. They should fix the bugs, the animations, and improve the character generator. That's my wishlist. I don't even want transitions skippable they haven't annoyed me yet.

It does sort items by level but not by category or quality. My issues with the vendor menu mostly have to do with our side of it when selecting items to sell beyond the salvage we gather. The vendors selection is fine for exactly the reason you suggested. If I had to pick and choose where BioWare concentrates their improvement efforts on the single player game it would be in precisely the same places you mentioned. The animations need work, there are a few bugs that need addressing and of course the character generator sucks.

 

[polonyc2]

Bioware is keeping it quiet as far as an ETA on the first major patch...I guess that's fine as long as they don't pull a No Man's Sky and keep silent for months

 

[zamardii12]

But it wasn't a human only undertaking. If there is an opportunity why not do it? That's like asking Elon Musk: "What the fuck do you want with space travel, there is plenty to do on earth still!"

That's not my point. My point is that Mass Effect 1 clearly set the tone that mankind was new to space travel. The humans found the Charon relay in the Milky Way and reactivated it in 2149. The events of Eden Prime take place in 2183 and the Andromeda Initiative departs the Milky Way in 2185. (Source: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline)

34 years. Before Eden Prime, only 34 years had passed between the humans finding their relay near Pluto and the events of Mass Effect 1 happening. Think of what happened in our history since the 1980s. That's the time difference we are talking. So all the races you encounter in Mass Effect are all relatively new to humans, and as you encounter when traveling the Star Map in ME1 many planets you encounter are undiscovered.

In 2172 (23 years after opening the Charon relay) Jien Garson starts planning the Andromeda Initiative.

And 2 years after the events of Mass Effect 1 does the Initiative set out on it's journey to Andromeda.

The reason I bring this timeline up is to imagine this for a second, Elon Musk's team finds a device that opens a gateway to interstellar space travel. Right now it's estimated there are "tens of billions" of potentially habitable planets in the Milky Way according to the Astrophysical Journal (https://arstechnica.com/science/201...table-planets-in-our-galaxy-tens-of-billions/)

So you find a way to open up the galaxy and tens of billions of other potential worlds to inhabit, and then 20 years after finding this network of relays in the Milky Way the first thing Elon Musk wants to do is travel 600+ years to another galaxy for a "fresh start" instead of exploring the Mily Way galaxy that has billions of potentially habitable worlds.

You see what i'm getting at? What is the rush? And no, it's not "What the fuck do you want with space travel, there is plenty to do on earth still!" We are talking about billions of other planets to settle (if that is the goal. to search for a new home). Why not focus on that before moving onto a completely different galaxy? I am all for looking and moving ahead, but this is like opening up a gift on Christmas that you have wanted for years and years but as soon as you get it you drop it and look for the next best thing. It all just seems kind of weird.

And my comparison to people I have talked to is the movie Interstellar (which I love). There was a very good build-up as to why we need to look for a new home and the journey and peril that goes into finding it. You WANTED to find a new home. You have an enormous imperative to find a new home. Nowhere I recall is it mentioned in the Mass Effect universe if there was a compelling reason to find a new home because of some problem on Earth (other than the reasons after ME1), let alone a compelling reason to leave a galaxy with potentially billions of habitable planets that you just gained access to a little over 20 years ago.

Hope that makes sense. I like to think about this stuff, so if this is getting too detailed then whatever but it's just something i've been thinking about. Love Andromeda and I am fully immersed in the game, but was just wondering about this stuff. I have been told by folks that completing the Ryder family quests and collecting memory fragments will better answer this question so we shall see.

 

[diableri]

That's not my point. My point is that Mass Effect 1 clearly set the tone that mankind was new to space travel. The humans found the Charon relay in the Milky Way and reactivated it in 2149. The events of Eden Prime take place in 2183 and the Andromeda Initiative departs the Milky Way in 2185. (Source: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline)

34 years. Before Eden Prime, only 34 years had passed between the humans finding their relay near Pluto and the events of Mass Effect 1 happening. Think of what happened in our history since the 1980s. That's the time difference we are talking. So all the races you encounter in Mass Effect are all relatively new to humans, and as you encounter when traveling the Star Map in ME1 many planets you encounter are undiscovered.

In 2172 (23 years after opening the Charon relay) Jien Garson starts planning the Andromeda Initiative.

And 2 years after the events of Mass Effect 1 does the Initiative set out on it's journey to Andromeda.

The reason I bring this timeline up is to imagine this for a second, Elon Musk's team finds a device that opens a gateway to interstellar space travel. Right now it's estimated there are "tens of billions" of potentially habitable planets in the Milky Way according to the Astrophysical Journal (https://arstechnica.com/science/201...table-planets-in-our-galaxy-tens-of-billions/)

So you find a way to open up the galaxy and tens of billions of other potential worlds to inhabit, and then 20 years after finding this network of relays in the Milky Way the first thing Elon Musk wants to do is travel 600+ years to another galaxy for a "fresh start" instead of exploring the Mily Way galaxy that has billions of potentially habitable worlds.

You see what i'm getting at? What is the rush? And no, it's not "What the fuck do you want with space travel, there is plenty to do on earth still!" We are talking about billions of other planets to settle (if that is the goal. to search for a new home). Why not focus on that before moving onto a completely different galaxy? I am all for looking and moving ahead, but this is like opening up a gift on Christmas that you have wanted for years and years but as soon as you get it you drop it and look for the next best thing. It all just seems kind of weird.

And my comparison to people I have talked to is the movie Interstellar (which I love). There was a very good build-up as to why we need to look for a new home and the journey and peril that goes into finding it. You WANTED to find a new home. You have an enormous imperative to find a new home. Nowhere I recall is it mentioned in the Mass Effect universe if there was a compelling reason to find a new home because of some problem on Earth (other than the reasons after ME1), let alone a compelling reason to leave a galaxy with potentially billions of habitable planets that you just gained access to a little over 20 years ago.

Hope that makes sense. I like to think about this stuff, so if this is getting too detailed then whatever but it's just something i've been thinking about. Love Andromeda and I am fully immersed in the game, but was just wondering about this stuff. I have been told by folks that completing the Ryder family quests and collecting memory fragments will better answer this question so we shall see.

I think the premise of your question is flawed. If things happened as you described and the boundary pushing person then said, "I am going to finance a trip to another galaxy. Come with me, across space and time and make new worlds." then there would be a waiting list of volunteers to go. There are (and I think a safe assumption is always will be) explorers. These people will always look over the hill, across the ocean and past the furthest star; the fastest, highest or farthest. These people will go with no other reason than they want to go. Godspeed with them I say.

 

[Dan_D]

sni...................I have been told by folks that completing the Ryder family quests and collecting memory fragments will better answer this question so we shall see.

Completing the "Ryder Family Secrets" quest does in fact shed light on this very topic.

I think the premise of your question is flawed. If things happened as you described and the boundary pushing person then said, "I am going to finance a trip to another galaxy. Come with me, across space and time and make new worlds." then there would be a waiting list of volunteers to go. There are (and I think a safe assumption is always will be) explorers. These people will always look over the hill, across the ocean and past the furthest star; the fastest, highest or farthest. These people will go with no other reason than they want to go. Godspeed with them I say.

This is not the only reason for the push to Andromeda.

 

[diableri]

Completing the "Ryder Family Secrets" quest does in fact shed light on this very topic.



This is not the only reason for the push to Andromeda.

Yeah, I thought the previous poster was trying to relate it to more real motives though and didn't want to get into spoilers.

 

[Dan_D]

Bioware is keeping it quiet as far as an ETA on the first major patch...I guess that's fine as long as they don't pull a No Man's Sky and keep silent for months

It really depends on what was going on behind the scenes. Its very possible they had a short list of fixes already in the works when the game was released. If that's the case we'll see a patch for some of those issues sooner rather than later. If its a patch to fix some of the more egregious animation errors and the bugs reported by customers, then that's another issue. A patch that couldn't have been in flight until after the game launched will take a lot longer to develop and release. I'm as certain as anyone can be that BioWare is already working on multiplayer content like they did with ME3. When we'll see more than the classes and the one map is anyone's guess. I'm sure that's already been in flight though. ME3's multiplayer was very successful.

 

[M76]

I will say the following.
1.The outfit choices are slim would have liked GTA/saints row type outfit variety.

There is a pretty big choice you just have to develop or buy them. Unless you mean casual outfits, which are shit, but I spend so little time in the game in that that so far. I think the casual body is somehow weird like your head is too small for the body. At least that's how I feel with the female ryder. But with regular on-duty outifts that problem is non-existent.
And the N7 suit looks pretty good. Not that the rest of the game doesn't, the graphical leap is huge compared to previous games.

 

[Dan_D]

That is very confusing to me how you can love the first three games and not feel compelled to play Andromeda. I am totally sucked into the game world right now. I would say that the first 10 hours felt laborious a little, but after things pick up really well and between driving the Nomad and doing the loyalty missions and the occasional task it's great fun. Also, the game is a screenshot person's wet dream especially if you are able to use Nvidia Ansel which i've been using quite a lot. I have so many wallpapers idk which one to use. Lol.

It's pretty simple. This game may be too different for some fans to enjoy it. While the combat, armors and weapons will feel familiar, the setting and characters aren't really carried over from the previous games. That's one of the reasons why this one has so many call backs to those earlier games. It's to try and establish that connection for people who might not be able to handle the changes between this new game and the old trilogy. This game doesn't have Shepard or any of the character's we've enjoyed for so long. The original trilogy was a huge investment. With each step, some people became more and more vested in the universe and characters. Andromeda is in some ways a fresh start for the IP and BioWare. For some people, that's too much change to handle. This game will serve to remind them it's not a sequel to the trilogy and a different beast altogether.

Andromeda to me is a fantastic return to form for the Mass Effect Universe. It is a PROPER Mass Effect title and not a cheap spin-off. It takes what's best about the first three games and melds them together into a beautiful open world adventure. They also massively improved the combat. I love my crew-mates and I love the way that the game makes it feel like they are alive and doing things even when you are not around whether they're writing you emails, talking to each other whether on the Tempest or driving around in the Nomad, posting on the crew message board on the ship, and the fact that they are almost never in the same place twice is cool and makes me look for them to see what they're up to. I feel a lot closer connection to this crew than I thought I would. They all have compelling stories and Andromeda doesn't just introduce you to Jaal for instance just to introduce a race; you get to know the race through his own experiences and his own perspective.

In a sense, BioWare always intended Mass Effect to be an RPG / Shooter hybrid. From the Casey Hudson interviews I get the impression that they started building an RPG and then realized the tools of the day allowed for an RPG with actual shooting mechanics so they went for it. Over time Mass Effect became less of an RPG and more of a cover based shooter. There are people on both sides of the fence who enjoyed the RPG aspects of ME1 while others prefer the combat of its sequels. There are also people like me that wanted a deeper RPG experience while retaining the combat mechanics of the later games. Mass Effect Andromeda, at least technically speaking is a proper sequel in that it improves on everything and does a better job with each of its hybrid components.

I also agree with you that the setting and characters become more endearing and more compelling over time. BioWare above all else is good at making characters. This is something I knew the game would excel at if I gave it a chance. It's succeeding brilliantly in this regard. I wasn't instantly enthralled by a lot of them and largely that's because they strike you as discount versions of characters from the other series. I think the best thing that people could do here is accept that this isn't part of the Shepard trilogy. It's another story somewhere else with its own characters and its own story. It should be taken on its own merits as should the characters. Drak isn't a bad character because he isn't Wrex or Grunt. In a way Grunt felt like a poor substitute for Wrex, but as you got to know him we learned he was very different. It's the same here. Drak isn't Wrex, he isn't Grunt, and he sure as shit isn't that asshole Wreave. He's a good character in his own right. PeeBee on the other hand struck me as BioWare trying to create an Asari archaeologist that was simply the opposite of Liara and that's all there was to her. Again, as you get to know her throughout the game you can see that she may have evolved from that as a starting point, but that isn't all she is.

The loyalty missions so far are done better than the bulk of, if not all of them in previous games. Liam's is fucking hilarious.

Also the sense of adventure in the game and the the thoughts that go with the feeling of you as a human being being the alien for the first time and being treated like an outsider and foreign. It really made me feel like I wanted to be a good ambassador of the human species. I really like the role of Ryder and can't wait to see what else they do with the series.

The only thing that I still don't quite understand even 40+ hours into Andromeda is what was the motivation for the Initiative? Like, back in the original trilogy humankind was seen as a fairly new space-faring species who have to earn their seat on the council and the respect of the other citadel races. Obviously there must be plenty of worlds to inhabit in the Milky Way as well as discover as you did in the original trilogy exploring the galaxy. So why the Initiative? The only narrative/motivation was "to have a new/fresh start." But why was that an imperative when the humans were so new to space travel after the events of Mass Effect that they felt the need to travel all the way to Andromeda? That's the only thing I don't quite understand. I know it was the brainchild of that one super rich woman; so perhaps she had a strong desire to make a name for herself but was hoping someone could elaborate.

Like I said, the motives for the initiative are revealed in part at the very least. There are quest lines devoted to figuring that stuff out. BioWare did a great job with those quest lines fleshing out the game's overall story. While I've said that story isn't always BioWare's forte, it sometimes is. At least subtext and weaving subplots of great complexity in with a larger main story (even a weaker one) is what they are good at. Many of the B stories are often far more compelling than the main "A" story. I think they sometimes use a fairly standard premise and that's fine but the way they flesh out everything that surrounds it is pretty good. Even ME2 and 3 did this fairly well.

 

[Q-BZ]

Fired up Origin and saw some real quick and small update to Andromeda. Anything to it?

 

[zamardii12]

Fired up Origin and saw some real quick and small update to Andromeda. Anything to it?

Doesn't say. Not on their blog either. They last updated with the 1.04 patch on the 21st. http://blog.bioware.com/2017/03/21/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-04-early-access-patch-notes/

Patch 1.04

Singleplayer

• Fixed an issue whereby players were unable to land on Ark Natanus
• Fixed an issue whereby the game loaded to a black screen or ran as a background process when Corsair Utility Engine or similar programs were running

Multiplayer

• Fixed an issue causing players to stop hearing their character’s audio and start hearing another player’s instead
• Fixed an issue causing the game to crash when using the Human Male Soldier and F key

Early Access Patch

General

• Overall performance improvements
• Fixed an issue with the title only accepting input from the last controller synced when two controllers are assigned to the same profile
• Fixed various collision issues
• Fixed a few rare audio issues

Singleplayer

• Improvements to many cinematics, conversations, and other character interactions
• Improved quest rewards
• Fixed an issue whereby a door could become jammed in mission 5
• Fixed issues with objective markers not appearing correctly
• Minor performance improvements after some Tempest transitions
• Fixed an issue whereby the combat music was not functioning as designed
• Fixed some minor quest-related issues
• Fixed a small cinematic issue during the Drack loyalty quest
• Minor balancing change to the “Remove the Heart” quest
• Improvements to quest tracking and waypoints

Multiplayer

• Improvements to Strike Teams UI screens
• Additional multiplayer tutorials implemented
• Balance changes to guns, reward packs, and objectives scoring
• Improved appearance of character portraits
• Added new artwork for MP characters, armor, and challenges in menus and codex entries

 

[TaintedSquirrel]

I don't have any complaints about the UI. I wish the game autosaved more often (plus a Quicksave button) and I wish we could change our squad colors/outfits... I remember we could actually PUT GEAR on our squad in ME1. Wish we had that here.

 

[NoOther]

I will say the following.
1.The outfit choices are slim would have liked GTA/saints row type outfit variety.

Ummm...you just lept across galaxies, are struggling for survival, and you want to have some crazy ridiculous choice of outfits like pool party outfits for a military/colonial space operation?

 

[NoOther]

I don't have any complaints about the UI. I wish the game autosaved more often (plus a Quicksave button) and I wish we could change our squad colors/outfits... I remember we could actually PUT GEAR on our squad in ME1. Wish we had that here.

Yeah there seems to be a real lack of customization in specs and loadouts for crew members.

 

[Q-BZ]

Possible banter bug "debug" experiment that some people are saying worked:

Walked around Eos in colony... turned subtitles on for 30 seconds or so (time up to you).... turned them back off, got in the Nomad, and once they drove out into "the wilds" the banter began. (Location probably doesn't matter. )

So: Turn subtitles on...walk around a bit... turn them off. See what happens. In addition to making sure codecses and everything are marked "all read."


Spotty and sketchy. May or may not last.

 

[Dan_D]

I don't have any complaints about the UI. I wish the game autosaved more often (plus a Quicksave button) and I wish we could change our squad colors/outfits... I remember we could actually PUT GEAR on our squad in ME1. Wish we had that here.

That's one element of Mass Effect 1 I fucking hated. Gearing them was tedious bullshit and I thought it added very little if anything to the game. I think Mass Effect 2 and 3 did it better giving us some ability to customize their appearances and load out without the extra inventory management. I think this improvement was a necessary in large part due to the massive amount of squad mates we had in ME2.

 

[Dan_D]

Possible banter bug "debug" experiment that some people are saying worked:

Walked around Eos in colony... turned subtitles on for 30 seconds or so (time up to you).... turned them back off, got in the Nomad, and once they drove out into "the wilds" the banter began. (Location probably doesn't matter. )

So: Turn subtitles on...walk around a bit... turn them off. See what happens. In addition to making sure codecses and everything are marked "all read."


Spotty and sketchy. May or may not last.

I don't think I've experienced this issue. My squad mates never shut the fuck up.

 

[TaintedSquirrel]

There's a bug where your squad mates stop bantering with each other. Not sure if it effects both the Nomad and on-foot, or just one of them. I might actually have this bug now that I think about it.

 

[termite]

I'll have to give the work arounds that Q-BZ stated.

I generally run with subtitles on. But have only seen party banter if they were talking about the current mission, at least since EOS.

Oddly enough, I get all the npc background conversations on the planets/Tempest/Nexus.

 

[Q-BZ]

I don't think I've experienced this issue. My squad mates never shut the fuck up.

To be more specific: This is an issue that only happens planetside and what apparently a number of people have been having happen...and I think I might as well... is they might say something to Ryder but never to each other.

Just now I had some banter between Jaarl and Pheebee so I don't know if there's anything to it or not. I feel like things have been fairly quiet in terms of chatter between the characters to each other planetside and I'm about 35 hours in and technically on my third planet.

There must be something to it since the lead developer specifically mentioned it and indicated it would be addressed with the first patch a week ago.

Like so many other things: It's strange that some people would have an issue and others would not.

 

[Dan_D]

Drak and Vetra are especially chatty. And my driving scares the shit out of Vetra. It's hilarious.

 

[NoOther]

It might have something to do with the pair of squadmates. If you have Drak as one of your squadmates, it seems everyone talks to him. I've been rolling around on Voeld with different combinations of squadmates with Drak and they all chat up a storm. Before I was rolling with the base Liam and Cora, and they didn't talk nearly as much as people talk with Drak.

 

[jiminator]

wow, just found out if you open a bunch of strike team rewards, and then go back to a prior saved game, then poof - everything is irretrievably gone.

LOL (but not really)

 

[Q-BZ]

It might have something to do with the pair of squadmates. If you have Drak as one of your squadmates, it seems everyone talks to him. I've been rolling around on Voeld with different combinations of squadmates with Drak and they all chat up a storm. Before I was rolling with the base Liam and Cora, and they didn't talk nearly as much as people talk with Drak.

Right. It makes sense that some would chat more than others. Right now have Peebee and Jaarl together and that's had a couple of good ones. (On Voeld)


I did have Vetra troll me on my driving once. That was good. LOL

 

[Dan_D]

Right. It makes sense that some would chat more than others. Right now have Peebee and Jaarl together and that's had a couple of good ones. (On Voeld)


I did have Vetra troll me on my driving once. That was good. LOL

On the low gravity asteroid she freaks out if you get close to the edge. They all do to some degree but her voice over seems to indicate she's particularly terrified. I think this is simply the difference in how the actress's performance sounded compared to the others. It's still funny though.

 

[zamardii12]

Right. It makes sense that some would chat more than others. Right now have Peebee and Jaarl together and that's had a couple of good ones. (On Voeld)


I did have Vetra troll me on my driving once. That was good. LOL

Drack and Jaal have the best convos i've heard in the Nomad. I remember Jaal asking Drack why he wears bones on himself and Drack answered something to the affect of "... and if you piss me off i'll wear your spine as a hat." I was laaaaughin!

Vetra a couple times woohooed in excitement when taking some big jumps with the Nomad.

 

[M76]

Found that there is an "upgrade" for the nomad that makes it handle more realisticly. It's a night and day difference. Of course it's not a simulation still, but much more acceptable than before.

 

[zamardii12]

Found that there is an "upgrade" for the nomad that makes it handle more realisticly. It's a night and day difference. Of course it's not a simulation still, but much more acceptable than before.

More realistic? Sounds like a downgrade to me. lol

 

[TaintedSquirrel]

wow, just found out if you open a bunch of strike team rewards, and then go back to a prior saved game, then poof - everything is irretrievably gone.

LOL (but not really)

It's to prevent people from cheesing crate rewards.

 

[Lunas]

There is a pretty big choice you just have to develop or buy them. Unless you mean casual outfits, which are shit, but I spend so little time in the game in that that so far. I think the casual body is somehow weird like your head is too small for the body. At least that's how I feel with the female ryder. But with regular on-duty outifts that problem is non-existent.
And the N7 suit looks pretty good. Not that the rest of the game doesn't, the graphical leap is huge compared to previous games.

I did mean the casual outfits of which there are only really 2 of them as i don't count rolling up sleeves as different... and in that line of thinking there is really only 1.5 casual outfit sleeves short sleeves or leather jacket w/scarf

As for combat armors there is like 10 different sets...

But my main issue is still how useless the tempest and nomad are. NO GUNS ON EITHER ONE and the nomad drives like ass... seriously copy paste the mako in i would be happier or even that shitty hover tank from the 2nd one...